Microsoft has recently announced its newest laptop, the Surface Laptop 7, alongside the Surface Pro 11 two-in-one.
One of the first laptops in the new Copilot Plus category, how does the Surface Laptop 7 compare to its predecessor, the Surface Laptop 5?
Although we’re yet to review the Surface Laptop 7, we have reviewed the Surface Laptop 5 and awarded the laptop a satisfactory three-star rating. With this in mind, we’ve compared the specs of both laptops so you can gauge whether you should upgrade or not.
Keep reading to learn more about the new Surface Laptop 7 and how it compares to the Surface Laptop 5. For those wondering about the Surface Laptop 6, this was a business-only model and not available for mass consumer purchase.
The Surface Laptop 7 is a Copilot Plus PC
As mentioned above, the Surface Laptop 7 is one of the first Copilot Plus computers, which was announced alongside the Surface Pro 11. Microsoft has explained that Copilot Plus PCs have been designed with AI in mind and offer access to “the most advanced” AI models, including Chat GPT-4o.
Other AI features include Recall which helps you to find anything you’ve seen or done on your PC “in a way that feels like having a photographic memory” and Cocreater which allows users to generate their own AI images straight onto their devices.
Not only does Copilot Plus have AI at its core but Microsoft also promises that Copilot Plus PCs are “the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built”. As we are yet to review the Surface Laptop 7 yet, we can’t verify these claims, however we’d be keen to try this ourselves.
The Surface Laptop 7 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series
While the Surface Laptop 5 ran on a choice between two of the 12th Gen Intel Core processors (i5-1235U or i7-1255U), the new Surface Laptop 7 runs on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X series instead.
Similarly to the Laptop 5, the Surface Laptop 7 can run on a choice between two processors: Snapdragon X Plus or Snapdragon X Elite. The latter is the more powerful of the two, with Microsoft claiming it will run a massive 86% faster than the Surface Laptop 5. Considering our reviewer found the Laptop 5 was “still comfortable fast to hop between web pages without slowdown” we’d be intrigued to see how fast the Laptop 7 really is.
Qualcomm also promises that the X Elite processor is its most powerful with “best-in-class CPU with high performance and remarkable power efficiency”. Although the X Plus isn’t as powerful and is only available in the 13.8-inch base model of the Laptop 7, both processors are built for AI and support the new AI-driven Microsoft Copilot Plus.
The Surface Laptop 7 offers up to 22-hours battery life
Impressively, Microsoft claims the 15-inch Surface Laptop 7 has up to 22-hours of video playback with the 13.8-inch not too far behind at 20-hours. We’d be keen to test this ourselves but considering we found the Laptop 5 “lasted just shy of 13 hours during battery test”, the Laptop 7 should be a considerable upgrade.
Both have a touchscreen HDR display
Both Surface Laptops are fitted with Microsoft’s PixelSense Flow technology which allows more than one object (fingers or compatible Surface Pens) can be used at once to interact with the display, negating the need for a keyboard or mouse.
Both laptops are also available in two sizes. They both share a 15-inch model which exclusively runs its equivalent more premium processor (so for the Laptop 5 that’s the Intel Core i7 and for the Laptop 7 that’s Snapdragon X Elite), but the Laptop 5 is available in a slightly smaller 13.5-inch model whereas the Laptop 7 is available in a 13.8-inch model.
The Surface Laptop 5 is cheaper
As the older of the two Surface offerings, the Laptop 5 is naturally cheaper with a current starting price of £799/ for the 13.5-inch model running on the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U processor.
The Laptop 7 is pricier, starting at £1049/ for the 13.8-inch model running on Snapdragon X Plus.
